What Size Water Softener System Do I Need For My Home?

Hard water can lead to trouble in your house and reduce the effectiveness of your water equipment, which is why many people use water conditioner(s) or water softener systems in Granger, IN.

They can improve the quality of your potable water while also preventing mineral build-up in showerheads, kettles, and taps. This implies that your food, clothing, and body will be nicer and healthier, and you won't have to replace your plumbing as often.

However, there are several water softener systems for soft water on the market, and it might be difficult to distinguish between them. Why are they available in various sizes? Is it true that bigger is better? In this post, we'll go over what a water softener performs and why hardness and utilization are important factors to consider when determining the best size for your home.
What is the purpose of a water softener? A water softener is a filtering device that eliminates soluble elements from your water systems, such as magnesium and calcium. These elements, which naturally exist in our seas and sediments, have a proclivity for bonding with metallic materials, hence why stony coatings form in pipelines and sprinkler systems - thus the term "hard water."

Magnesium and calcium, thankfully, provide no health dangers - but if you are suffering from kidney stones, you may experience relapses.

However, the most typical issues include trouble soaping your hair or getting a residue-free touch on dishes or flatware. In the worst-case scenario, the chemical build-up will restrict surface runoff, pressure difference, and damage your pipelines over time, necessitating costly restoration.

Water softeners can help with this by providing you with soft water.

Oppositely charged polymeric beads are used in these devices to capture charged particles elements and extract them from the stream. After that, the demineralized water travels through your pipelines and out of your faucet. This procedure is repeated until the epoxy particles have reached their total functionality.

The device is cleansed with salts or potassium nitrate from the saline reservoir when this occurs. The ions are washed off the beads and discharged through a pipe. The machine then returns to its softening mode, and the cycle repeats again.


What Size Water Softener System Should I Get? The capacity of your softener is based on two factors: the hardness of your water and the amount of water you use on a daily basis. Let's take a deeper look at this.
Hardness The first step is to determine the hardness of your water. Your tap water may contain a variety of elements, based on your location like Granger, IN. Calcium carbonate is the most common chemical, which may be found in marbles, lime, and gypsum.

This isn't unexpected. Calcium carbonate is 4% of the earth's crust that has accumulated over billions of years as a result of the deposition of seashells and reefs. The quantity in your soil and water, on the other hand, is not consistent.

Magnesium, copper, iron, and zinc, among other minerals, may be present in your stream. It all relies on the fertilizer application where you reside, as well as precipitation and water run-off.

You may test the hardness of your water-testing equipment, a cleanliness assessment from the local water source, or water in a beaker sent to an independent laboratory. Milligrams per liter (mg) or grains per gallon (gpg) are the units of measurement (gpg). 

Once you know your surface hardness, you'll know if your water is harder, softer, or maybe in the middle. Keep this number handy since we'll need it later when we use the water softener calculator.

Consumption The next step is to figure out just how much liquid you use on a daily basis. Examine your most recent hydro bill and take note of the total gallons consumed. There may be seasonal variations, so pick an average that you can deal with.

If you don't have access to the data, make an educated guess. The average human uses 80–100 gallons of water each day in Granger or South bend, according to the USGS. Multiply this figure by the number of persons in your household.
Why should I be concerned with efficiency? Your water softeners illustrate how much salt you'll need to purchase, how much salt you'll have to transport, and how much salt will be dumped into the ecosystem. When you size a water conditioner or water softener and examine its salt efficacy, you'll get a softener that not only never goes out of regular water, but also consumes the least concentration of sodium. This equates to reduced expenses and simplicity of operation during the lifespan of the filtration system.
Calculator for Water Softeners You may use the water softener calculator now that you know the hardness value and your consumption in gallons. The method is straightforward. The hardness number is multiplied by the number of gallons each day.

If four persons use 320 gallons of water in total and the hardness is 8, the total will be 2,560. This would need your water softener to remove 2,560 grains every day.

Grains to be removed per day = Hardness value x Total gallons per day

8 gpg x 320 gallons = 2,560 grains per day, for example.
If your water contains a lot of iron, double the overall hardness value by 3 gpg for every 1 mg of iron, and then do the math.
Final Verdict Water softener systems and sizing solutions may be found all over the web to assist users in selecting the appropriate softening size. Unfortunately, the vast bulk of these calculators does not account for water conditioner effectiveness in our area of Granger or Mishawaka. 

As a result, many people choose a softener that appears to be the right size but consumes a lot of salt (typically more than 2000 pounds per year) instead of an appropriately fitted, economical one that uses 300 pounds per year. What causes this to happen? Simply said, many dealers, both online and in-store, are unfamiliar with the notion of softener salt efficiency and do not account for it in their size calculations.

Now that you know, “what size water softener system do I need for my home?”, you can easily proceed with the process of sizing it at the comfort of your home.